Shuichi Gets Schooled
by chochowilliams
Summary: One-shot. A package from an old friend forced Eiri to explain a few things to Shuichi.


**Shuichi Gets Schooled**

**One-Shot**

**Written by:** chochowilliams

**Disclaimer: **I do not own _Gravitation _or the characters, places or names. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

**Summary: **A package from an old friend forced Eiri to explain a few things to Shuichi

**Warning:** M/M, Drama

**Pairings:** Shuichi/Eiri

**Inserts: **Brief history lesson on the differences between American and British English

**A/N:** Another drabble without much of a plot.

**oOo**

If Eiri'd had one friend at school, it was Shun Goto. They hadn't been as close as Shuichi and Hiro are or as close as Touma would like him to believe they are. They hadn't been best friends-not even close. Even the noun "friend" was dubious. It wasn't as if they hung out outside of school or called each other on the phone to talk for hours. In that regard, it was difficult to classify what they'd had as friendship or what they'd been as friends, but before and after classes, during P.E. and lunch, they'd been inseparable.

Shun used to defend Eiri by standing up to the bullies that'd been determined to make Eiri's school life a living hell-as if he'd been the only "foreign" looking kid at school. Occasionally, Shun would tease Eiri about the very aspects that used to get Eiri's ass kicked; it'd all been in good fun though. Besides, with the cowlick Shun used to have, that boy had taken as good as he gave. Eiri'd valued Shun's friendship.

Then during their first year of high school, Shun's father was transferred to San Diego, California. Shun and his mother followed the following spring.

The next time Eiri saw his friend again was eight years later when he took Shuichi to New York City. They ran into one another at a bar and ended up talking for hours.

Shun hadn't been the least bit surprised to learn that Eiri was gay. He claimed to have had "a feeling" when they were in school. This, of course, had Eiri rethinking the torment he'd been forced to endure when he was younger. If his sexuality had been so obvious back then, could that be the reason why the bullies picked on him unmercifully?

It _had_ surprised Eiri to learn that his schoolboy friend was an aspiring writer. Shun used to hate reading. Couldn't read the label on a bottle of aspirin without losing interest halfway through. Shun once claimed that reading put him to sleep. As for writing? Forget it. Shun couldn't write himself out of paper bag if his life depended on it and now he wanted to be an author?

"_I'll be the first to read it right?"_ Eiri'd said, not truly believing it would ever happen.

"_Sure," _Shun had replied._ "I'll send you the first copy."_

And here it was a year to the day and Shuichi, on break from recording the follow up to Bad Luck's chart topping debut, decided to alleviate his boredom by going down to check if the mail came.

It had.

There were loads of bills…

"Fun," Shuichi commented dryly. He'd once asked Eiri why he didn't just pay his bills online like the rest of humanity. Eiri claimed to not trust the Net as far as he could throw it.

…magazines…

"Cool!" A little more than half of the almost dozen magazines that arrived in the mail were his. Some were magazines like _Shonen Jump_. Others were catalogues.

He needed to buy a new keyboard. Eiri said he should look into getting a piano instead.

…royalty checks…

"_Very_ cool!"

…and a package.

Shuichi turned it over. It was slim and a little on the long side. It was just about the right size and shape for a book, but he didn't remember ordering anything and he didn't think Eiri had either. The return address in the upper left-hand corner was not one Shuichi recognized either, especially since it was in America.

"Vision. Hachette Book Group USA. 237 Park Avenue. New York, NY 10017," he read. (1)

What he did recognize was the addressee. The package was addressed to both him _and_ Eiri. That made Shuichi as giddy as a schoolgirl.

"'Uesugis'," he read aloud. He giggled. He liked the sound of that very much.

Shoving everything else under his arm, Shuichi tore open the box-a folded sheet of paper fluttered to the floor unnoticed-and pulled out what did indeed turn out to be a book. The dustcover of the hardcover book was bright pink. Printed in large black font at the top was the author's name: Shun Goto. He recognized the name immediately. He met the dude in New York. The aspiring writer. The old friend of Eiri's. He remembered him. Sweet guy.

At the bottom of the front cover was a collage of images. There was a beautiful monarch butterfly, a gold link chain that held a teardrop diamond about the size of his thumb and a photo of two little girls at a playground with their arms about one another. Their faces were hidden underneath a diary. An uncapped fountain pen lay besides the diary.

Above the images in a wide black band in slightly smaller white font was what he assumed was the title of the book. _Her Favorite Color_.

That had Shuichi blinking.

"You dropped this," said a sudden female voice.

Shuichi muttered a distracted, "thanks," as he took the folded piece of paper from the young girl. Without taking his eyes from the book cover, he made his way across the lobby to the elevators-not realizing the young girl had been asking for his autograph-and up to the condominium he shared with Eiri.

**oOo**

_I HAVE ALWAYS FELT that life was on the borderline of being absurd and meaningless, but it can still be pretty, if you look at it in the right light._

_And so the rest of the early evening was per- _(2)

The sound of the front door opening and slamming shut shattered Eiri's concentration. He heaved a sigh. Guess it'd been too much to hope that Shuichi had gone out.

"Eiri?"

"In here," he called back. Not knowing what type of mayhem Shuichi would bring with him, Eiri saved what little he'd managed to write and sat back just as Shuichi burst into the study. He cringed as the door smashed into the wall.

"Baka," he snapped.

"Sorry," Shuichi apologized without sounding the least bit sorry as he strode across the small office towards the desk behind which sat Eiri.

Eiri sighed and taking off his glasses, closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. He tried to ignore the dull ache behind his temples. That was all they needed-more of his security deposit being deducted in order to repair the damage caused by Shuichi on a daily basis. It was bad enough that that psychotic manager of his just _had _to kick down their apartment door every freaking morning; how K managed to become a manager for musicians Eiri had no idea.

"Check it out," Shuichi lightly ordered.

Opening his eyes, Eiri blinked down at the object thrust under his nose. Leaning away enough so he could look at it without going cross eyed, Eiri realized it was a book. He slid his glasses back on and took it. "What is it?"

"A book."

Eiri suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. "I can see that thanks," he said. His voice was thick with sarcasm.

"Then why'd you ask?" Shuichi asked innocently with a blink of his amethyst eyes.

Eiri sighed. "Never mind," he muttered.

Shuichi grinned and giggled.

He was gazing at the back of the book, which was covered with reviews all of which praised the new author's debut mock memoir. Eiri flipped the book over to the front. At the author's name, he stared in disbelief for a moment before grinning. "Son of a bitch!"

"That's your friend right? The guy from New York?"

"Yeah," he replied dumbstruck.

Goto actually did it. Eiri had to admit the idea had been absurd when he'd first heard it. Goto? A writer? There was more of a chance of believing that the Devil would grovel before God in a sincere act of contrition.

Eiri pried open the cover.

"But they made a mistake."

Eiri tore his gaze away from the sleeve of the dust jacket where the summation of the story's plot was outlined and glanced at Shuichi in confusion. "Who did? Where?"

Shuichi grabbed the book out of Eiri's hand and turned it back to the front cover. He pointed to the title. "They spelled it wrong."

Eiri blinked. "Huh?"

"_Her Favorite Color_," Shuichi read the title. "They spelled 'favorite' and 'color' wrong."

"No they didn't," was Eiri's automatic response.

"Yes they did," Shuichi contradicted. "They left out the 'u'."

Eiri shook his head. "No, they didn't."

"But-!"

"What you learned was _British_ English."

Shuichi's face went blank. "Huh?"

"Look," Eiri said. "'Favourite' and 'colour' spelled with 'o-u-r' is how the words are spelled in the UK." He felt like a teacher. "In America, they dropped the 'u' centuries ago."

Shuichi blinked. "Why?"

Eiri shrugged. "To separate themselves from the British who they were in the process of rebelling against. Spoken English isn't that difficult to distinguish between, though there are differences. Like in the UK, they use 'lift' where in America they use 'elevator'. 'Bloke' for 'man', 'torch' for 'flashlight', 'arse' for 'ass', 'wank' for 'masturbate'."

Shuichi blushed.

"Instead of saying, 'I took the exam' in the UK they say, 'I sat the exam.'" Eiri turned back to the book. "But obviously, for someone who's never been exposed to anything but British English, they'd think words like 'favorite' and 'color' not having a 'u', there being a 'z' instead of an 's', two 'l's' instead of one or the 'e' and 'r' being switched at the end of a word were spelled wrong, as if the editor had been asleep on the job."

Silence greeted the end of his long-winded explanation.

Eiri turned back to Shuichi and cringed at the look of awe.

"Eiri," Shuichi breathed. "You are so cool! You know so much!"

"Not really," Eiri corrected. It was nice Shuichi thought so though. "Just watched something about it on the History Channel the other day."

"But still-! I don't remember all that."

Eiri snorted. "Course not. Seeing you fell asleep five minutes after the show began."

Shuichi blushed. "Yeah, well, it was kinda boring."

"Uh, huh. Says someone who watches _Naruto_ every Saturday morning."

"Hey! There is nothing wrong with _Naruto_!"

Eiri hummed in response but otherwise said nothing. He was not about to get into an argument over something as asinine as anime. They'd be there all day. Instead, he steered the conversation back to the book. "Where'd you get it?"

"It came in the mail."

Eiri nodded. He still could not believe that his old friend had actually written a book.

"So," Shuichi drawled, gazing down at the book in his lover's hand, "it isn't spelled wrong." He was referring to the title.

"Nope."

"Weird," Shuichi whispered mostly to himself.

Eiri cracked open the book cover. A folded sheet of paper fluttered into his lap. He put the book aside and unfolded the paper. There was a single type written line.

"As promised."

"What's it say?" Shuichi asked coming to stand behind him.

Eiri read the line a loud.

"Didn't think he'd do it, huh?" Shuichi teased, nudging Eiri lightly in the ribs.

"Honestly? No."

Refolding the note, Eiri picked up the book and cracking open the cover, set the note inside and read the book summary.

It appeared the book was written in the first person from the point of view of a young man named Caleb, who having just graduated from college with a bachelor's in pre-law, learns that he has a six-year-old daughter named Soleil who has just been diagnosed with a progressive, incurable form of cancer.

Wow. Talk about depressing.

"Uhm, Eiri?"

Eiri tipped his head back. He raised an eyebrow at his younger lover's nervousness.

"Could I read it?"

That surprised Eiri. "It doesn't have any pictures you know."

Shuichi rolled his eyes. "Duh."

"And it's in English."

"Yeah. I kinda figured that one out."

Eiri snickered. "And you _still_ want to read it?"

"Well, it _was _addressed to the both of us."

Sighing, Eiri rolled his eyes. "Of course it was," he muttered to himself. Closing the book with a snap, he handed it over.

With a squeal, Shuichi snatched it and hugged the book to his chest. "Thanks Eiri!" He kissed Eiri's cheek and then was gone.

Eiri had to shake his head at Shuichi.

Turning back to the computer, he opened a new blank document and started a letter to his old friend Shun Goto.

…**The End**

**(1)**__This is an actual book publisher.

**(2)** Portion of _Double Cross_ by James Patterson


End file.
